Name and where you live
My name is Fleur Menezes and I live with my husband and two teenage sons. My sons take after their Mum and are also huge Eurovision fans. My husband tends to only follow the competition on Eurovision week.
I’m a born and bred Melbourne girl but I did live in the Greater Toronto Area of Canada for a couple of years.
Tell us a little bit about yourself
I’m currently studying a Diploma of Nutrition and am hoping to study a Bachelor’s degree in that field eventually. I have worked in banking and retail previously and hold an advanced diploma in tourism and marketing. Other than Eurovision, I love following the AFL and have been a member of the Richmond Football Club for pretty much my whole life. The number 1 item on my bucket list for many years was to attend the AFL grand final and see Richmond win. I did it twice. Now to go to Eurovision. When I am not listening to Eurovision tunes, I listen to rock music. I also enjoy trivia competitions, learning languages through Duolingo and attending my sons’ lacrosse matches. I am a lacrosse Mum.
What is your Eurovision journey?
My Dad was channel surfing one Sunday night in 1987 and we ended up on this show with flags and foreign language music, we had no idea what it was and then these numbers were been read out- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 and 12. As a kid, I was obsessed with countries, flags and capital cities. I also loved listening to music and was good at maths. This tv show had it all.
A chap representing Ireland by the name of Johnny Logan won and sang a winner’s reprise of ‘Hold me now’. Dad and I were hooked and we later found out that it was called the Eurovision Song Contest. I have been watching it since.
‘Hold me now’ had a lot of success in Australia and then I had discovered that I had been hearing a lot of Eurovision related stuff my whole life with ABBA, Bucks Fizz, Silver Convention, Genghis Khan, Sandie Shaw, Mouth and Mac Neal, Katja Ebstein, Lulu, The Brotherhood of Man and of course, Olivia Newton John to name a few.
Do you have any affinity to nations other than Australia?
Not really, I just go for the songs that I like. But I like to see Portugal and Denmark do well as that’s where my ancestry hails from.
Any Aussievision highlights?
Writing my first article ‘Day of Valdemar - Denmark's Five Iconic Eurovision Entries’ back in June 2019 gave me a sense of accomplishment as I struggle with confidence at times. Also meeting some wonderful people who share my passion of Eurovision. I have made many life-long friends within the Aussievision team.
Quick questions on Eurovision entries
Best winner:
'Dansevise’ (Denmark 1963), ‘Hold Me Now’ (Ireland 1987) for sentimental reasons and I really love 'Zitti e buoni' (Italy 2021), the most recent winner.
Favourite three non-Australian entries:
'Love injected' (Latvia 2016), ‘For Real’ (Turkey 2004), ‘One More Day’ (Georgia 2011) are songs that I never get tired of.
Favourite Australian entry:
'Sound of Silence' - Dami Im- 2016.
Favourites from the last century:
Dschinghis Khan (Germany 1979), Playback (Portugal 1981) and L'amour est bleu (Luxembourg 1967) are a few that I can think of.
Guilty pleasure: ‘Chains on you’ (Armenia 2020) Come back Athena!!! Also ‘Be My Valentine (Anti-Crisis Girl)’ (Ukraine 2009) and most of Moldova’s entries.
Favourite non-qualifier:
'Hope Never Dies' (Czech Republic 201), 'Love Unlimited' (Bulgaria 2012) and 'Telemóveis' (Portugal 2019). Also I’m still salty with 'Øve os på hinanden' (Denmark 2021) not qualifying last year.
Favourite national finals:
MGP (Norway), Pabandom iš naujo! (Lithuania) and UMK (Finland). Admittedly, I do miss the Belarussian national final auditions.
Favourite costumes I have cosplayed a few Eurovision contestants such as TIX (2021), Saara Aalto (Finland 2018), JOWST (Norway 2017) and Cláudia Pascoal (Portugal 2018). My favourite though would have to be Anne-Karine Strøm (Norway 1976).
Favourite national final songs:
There are so many. Wow. For this year ‘All In’ (LUMA, Slovenia) was my favourite. I also loved ‘Dreamer’ (Voyager, Australia) and 'Superman’ (Viktor Apostolovski, North Macedonia) was my biggest guilty pleasure.
Favourite novelty entries
'Woki mit dem popo' (Austria 2012), 'So Lucky' (Moldova 2011) and 'Moustache' (France 2014) are some that come to mind.
Any final comments?
I love how a simple singing contest brings so many people together. I learn so much about other countries and appreciate other cultures more because of it. Mostly I have met so many people from following the contest. I am so fortunate to have friends all over Australia and the world that I would not have met otherwise. I am yet to attend Eurovision but I look forward to my now annual trips to the Gold Coast for Australia Decides- not just for the competition but to see my interstate friends.
